Cocobolo Coffee Table

I had some left over cocobolo from a project and after some drawing, calculating…etc…I decided to make a simple coffee table from it. I had second thoughts as most of the furniture in this room is oak….the floor is oak….etc. Luckily, the oak is older and dark from ageing…so the cocobolo seems to fit right in.

The legs are tapered and made using a shop made tapering jig. The top is coopered using dominoes….the stretchers are all motised and tenoned to the legs….The finish is shellac with an overcoat of oil based poly…rubbed out with rottenstone and then a few buffed on coats of dark minwax. I had thought of putting a shelf on the bottom…but then changed my mind as I liked the understated simplicity….though now I have to decide what to do with some small slats of cocobolo.

Thanks for looking….any and all comments, suggestions, reviews welcome.

Nice table. You cannot go wrong with Cocobolo. I like the appearance of its grain and the fantastic finish that can be applied. The hard part is finding good cocobolo around my area…mostly little pieces.

Marty, by coopered I meant that the top is not one big piece but many pieces – there is a total of 9 pieces glued up to make this top.

This is the first time I have used dominos instead of biscuits on a flat panel layup…..I decided to use dominos as cocobolo has very little resistance to shearing…..it cracks very easy from screws or other fasteners. The dominos insert deeper and have slightly more area to glue. Biscuits on the other hand are good for lining up the flats…..but not for strength….I’ve seen cocobolo break through biscuits before…..I did use biscuits to attach the top to the frame.

Thanks all for the very nice comments. One great thing about using cocobolo….It makes any project look good (the wood is so beautiful – it is hard to make anything really bad with it)....I really enjoy it in a finished project….but it is not a forgiving wood…..it cracks easy and is very subject to tear out…it is oily and hard to glue or to finish….and the dust is irritating to anyone with allergies and last of all….it is very expensive. It does have a nice cinnamon like smell though…and is a great wood to turn on a lathe.